Construction jobsSeptember 2026Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties
Construction jobs in Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties ran 0.3% below a year earlier in September, the tenth month in a row
The three counties counted 59,600 construction jobs in September 2026, 200 fewer than a year earlier and the smallest gap since April.
- September 2026
- 59,600Jobs, preliminary
- From Sep 2025
- −200−0.3%, against 59,800
- From August
- LevelAugust revised to 59,600
- Months below
- 10In a row, since December 2025
September held level with August at 59,600, where 2025 fell 1,000
Jobs by month, thousands, not seasonally adjusted. The gray band runs from the lowest to the highest count for each month in 2021 to 2025, and the dashed line is their median.
Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties counted 59,600 mining, logging and construction jobs in September 2026, 200 or 0.3% fewer than in September 2025, according to preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics figures that are not seasonally adjusted. It was the tenth month in a row below the same month a year earlier, and the gap matched April's as the smallest of that run.
From January through September, the three counties averaged 57,400 of these jobs, 1,200 or 2.1% fewer than in the same months of 2025.
The figures come from the BLS Current Employment Statistics survey, a monthly count of jobs on employer payrolls, for the Montgomery County-Bucks County-Chester County metropolitan division, a BLS area made of the three counties. BLS reports construction there together with mining and logging. FRED, the St. Louis Fed's data service, posted the September figure on October 20, 2026. The same release revised August up by 100 jobs, from 59,500 to 59,600.
Why the gap narrowedSeptember usually falls from August. In 2026 it held at 59,600
The count in this series usually drops from August to September. September came in below August in every year from 1990 through 2025 except 1993 and 2004. In 2025 the drop was 1,000 jobs, and from 2016 through 2024 it ran between 300 and 700.
September fell 1,000 from August in 2025 and held level in 2026
Change in jobs from August to September of each year, 2016 to 2026, not seasonally adjusted.
In 2026, September held level with August at 59,600. Because September 2025 had fallen 1,000 from the month before, the gap with a year earlier shrank from 1,200 jobs in August to 200 in September.
September 2026's count ranks fifth among the 37 Septembers since 1990. Only 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2025 counted more.
September 2026 ranks fifth of the 37 Septembers since 1990
Jobs in September of each year, 1990 to 2026, thousands, not seasonally adjusted. Bars start at zero.
The run since DecemberTen months below the year before, the longest run since one that ended in March 2021
The current run began in December 2025, when the count came in 1,600 below December 2024. November 2025 had matched November 2024 at 58,900. February 2026 showed the widest gap, 51,900 jobs against 55,300 a year earlier, a drop of 3,400 or 6.1%. From May through August the shortfall ran between 800 and 1,600 jobs a month.
The gap was widest in February, at 3,400 jobs, and narrowed to 200 in September
Change in jobs from the same month a year earlier, September 2024 to September 2026, not seasonally adjusted.
Ten months is the longest run below the year before since the 12 months from April 2020 through March 2021, when the count fell to 37,000 in April 2020 against 55,200 a year earlier.
The four divisions of the metro areaThe metro area's average fell 1,200, the same as the three counties'
The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro area counted 128,500 mining, logging and construction jobs in September 2026, 200 or 0.2% fewer than in September 2025. BLS splits the metro area into four metropolitan divisions, and their counts add up to the metro total. The three counties held 46.4% of the metro area's jobs in this series in September.
The three counties held 46.4% of the metro area's 128,500 jobs
Only the three counties ran below 2025 in all nine months
Change in jobs from the same month of 2025, thousands, January to September 2026, by division. All four panels share one scale.
Over the first nine months of the year, the metro area averaged 124,400 jobs, 1,200 fewer than in the same months of 2025. The three counties' average fell by 1,200 as well. The Philadelphia division's average fell by about 100, Camden's was level and Wilmington's rose by about 100. By that arithmetic, the metro area's decline this year comes from Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties.
Month by month, the three counties ran below the year before in all nine months of 2026. The Philadelphia division ran below from February through June and above in January and from July through September. Camden ran above in five months, below in three and level in May. Wilmington ran above in four months.
| Division | Sep 2026 | Change on a year | Jan–Sep average | Change in average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montgomery-Bucks-ChesterMontgomery, Bucks and Chester counties, Pa. | 59,600 | −200 | 57,400 | −1,200 |
| PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia and Delaware counties, Pa. | 26,000 | +100 | 25,300 | −100 |
| CamdenBurlington, Camden and Gloucester counties, N.J. | 24,100 | +200 | 23,100 | 0 |
| WilmingtonNew Castle County, Del.; Cecil County, Md.; Salem County, N.J. | 18,800 | −300 | 18,600 | +100 |
| Metro area totalAll 11 counties | 128,500 | −200 | 124,400 | −1,200 |
Pennsylvania as a wholeStatewide, construction jobs ran 1,400 below September 2025
Statewide, BLS counts construction alone, without mining and logging, and publishes a seasonally adjusted series, one with the usual seasonal swing removed so that one month can be compared with the next. Pennsylvania had 262,900 construction jobs in September 2026 on that basis, up 1,100 from August and 1,400 or 0.5% below September 2025. The statewide count has been below the year before in each month from May through September.
Pennsylvania rose 1,100 in September and stayed 1,400 below a year earlier
Construction jobs in Pennsylvania, thousands, seasonally adjusted, September 2024 to September 2026. The axis does not start at zero.
For contractorsWhat this means for your business
- Compare your own headcount, and your subcontractors', with the same month last year. In September the three counties as a whole were within 0.3% of last year, so a shop running well below last year is behind the area.
- October 2025 counted 59,800 jobs in the three counties. An October 2026 count below that would make an eleventh month in a row below the year before.
- For what local trades earn, see construction wages in the Philadelphia area. For the permit series and materials prices, see construction jobs, permits and materials prices. The September materials price figures are in the latest Producer Price Index article.
- For national construction employment, see Construction Metrics.
The dataThe last 13 months, from 59,800 to 59,600
| Month | Three counties | A year earlier | Change | Change (%) | Change, drawn as a bar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 59,800 | 59,200 | +600 | +1.0 | |
| Oct 2025 | 59,800 | 59,300 | +500 | +0.8 | |
| Nov 2025 | 58,900 | 58,900 | 0 | 0.0 | |
| Dec 2025 | 56,500 | 58,100 | −1,600 | −2.8 | |
| Jan 2026 | 54,100 | 55,200 | −1,100 | −2.0 | |
| Feb 2026 | 51,900 | 55,300 | −3,400 | −6.1 | |
| Mar 2026 | 55,500 | 57,000 | −1,500 | −2.6 | |
| Apr 2026 | 58,500 | 58,700 | −200 | −0.3 | |
| May 2026 | 58,300 | 59,900 | −1,600 | −2.7 | |
| Jun 2026 | 59,300 | 60,200 | −900 | −1.5 | |
| Jul 2026 | 59,800 | 60,600 | −800 | −1.3 | |
| Aug 2026 | 59,600 | 60,800 | −1,200 | −2.0 | |
| Sep 2026 prelim. | 59,600 | 59,800 | −200 | −0.3 |
NotesCaveats
The September 2026 figures are preliminary, and BLS marks them that way in its data. August was revised by 100 jobs in this release, and a revision of that size to September would change the gap by half. BLS also revises its state and metro series each year against fuller payroll records.
The three-county and division series are not seasonally adjusted, so a month's change from the month before mostly shows the season. This article compares each month with the same month of an earlier year, except for the statewide series, which BLS adjusts.
BLS combines construction with mining and logging for the metro area and its divisions. The series counts jobs in Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties as a whole and does not break out Conshohocken or any single county.
The division averages are this site's arithmetic on rounded monthly figures, so a change of 100 jobs in them is within rounding.